Colorful1

Sorry to hear of your distress. Wish my LQS was near you; she'd guide you on how to handle them.

Mdegenhart

I bought various fabric from Jo-ann for my second-ever quilt. The terrible quality and ensuing headaches taught me never again to use cheap fabric.

mountainwoman

Unlike many quilters who post here, I almost exclusively use precuts. I have made SEVERAL quilts using layer cakes, charm packs, and my favorite -Jolly Bars (5"X10" cuts made by Moda and available only through Fat Quarter Shop). I have, to date, only made one quilt using jelly rolls; it was nothing fancy -just a strip quilt, but it was absolutely lovely and remains one of my favorite quilts. I have NEVER had any problem with any of my precuts. I don't think your problem is pre-cuts; your problem is that you simply have to buy quality precuts. I use Moda, Windham, Hoffman, Wilmington, Kaufman, Kona, etc.

Frankly, you have to be very careful about what you buy at Joann's. I considered buying some jelly rolls, but more than one reviewer said that the quality was very poor. The only precuts I have bought from there are the sampler blocks for the Canyon Sunrise quilt; I've made five of the twelve blocks to date, and I am constantly having to measure, remeasure, square up -it is going to be a long process. Lesson learned: I won't be buying ANY precuts from Joann's.

I hope you don't give up on pre-cuts; you just need to buy quality, and if you look for sales, you can get some very nice prices, especially online. Good luck!

Amking409

I want to thank everyone for all your help,kind words,support and information. So valuable! I ended up returning most of the jelly rolls to Joann fabrics. I took advantage of the opportunity and practiced squaring my blocks and also did a little stitch in the ditch. All your kindness is amazing and another reason why "All I want to do is sew"

Stglassjo

So in reading thru a lot of these posts, it's "normal" that pre-cuts are unpredictable? Why is that acceptable? I bought 2 kits from Nancy's Notions and the jelly rolls on them were way less than 2.5" wide. I was shocked. Guess I shouldn't have been. I don't understand why inferior quality is "normal"..........let alone acceptable. Here I had my panties all in a wad over this with Nancy's Notions and they're probably used to it as it sounds like it happens all the time. That's a shame. Seems today that mediocrity is "the norm" and accountability and reliability are going by the wayside.............that scares me.

YukonViv

I don't think it's that it's acceptable, because honestly if I am spending my money it isn't, the consumer just has to be aware and know that you get what you pay for. Jelly Rolls are a Moda precut. I have never had an issue with Moda quality in their bolt fabric or precuts. I use a lot of precuts in Layer Cakes, Jelly Rolls and Charm Square packs. Other companies, or store, may package 2.5" strips, or 5" squares, but that doesn't mean their standards or methods are the same as Moda. They could be just fine but they aren't a product that I personally would use. I don't purchase fabric though just because, I use what I get and move on to the next. If I have to wait and save to buy the fabric I want to use...then I wait. I think like everything out there in the world you can always get a cheaper alternative, and if that's what you can afford use it, just know it won't be like the quality item. I grew up wearing knock off jeans that didn't last but when that's all you could get, you wore them and made them work. Same with quilt fabric, not all fabric or fabric bundles are created equal...but if that is all you can get, use it and make it work for you.

pocoellie

This is one of the reasons I don't buy pre-cuts, although I have received name brand batik jelly rolls as gifts, and I know they paid boocoo bucks, but upon opening them up found so many had the huge elbow and such, that I ended up trimming them to 2" strips.